We first built 6 yrs ago and every builder was pro saltwater. We got saltwater and have loved it. We have had some erosion on flagstone. Anyway, we are moving and planning to do another pool but refuse to use the builder of our first pool. Every co. We have talked to is anti swg. Ugh.
Are pool c. Moving away from swg?
- Thread starter Andiejj
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I love SWG personally. When you say they are anti SWG are they refusing to install it?
Yes. A couple have said they are not doing them. Another said they strong oppose putting them in and they wi not warranty any stone work.
Wow. You'd think they wouldn't want to lose the business. As long as the stone is properly sealed and maintained it shouldn't be an issue. That and use the right kind of stone.
Texas seems to be the center of issues with stone erosion and SWG's. There is more than one thread on the forum regarding this. A few scattered reports elsewhere around the country. I suspect some of the stone commonly used in Texas is more vulnerable.
I think that the primary stone type to avoid when using a SWG is a calcium carbonate stone, such as limestone or travertine.
You just need a dense, hard stone...some limestones will work, some won't. The texas flagstone that crumbles so readily is a sandstone, so there aren't broad generalizations that can be made.
If you otherwise like a builder, you can always have them build the pool and have someone else put in a salt system after the pool is built. If you don't want a SWG, then a peristaltic feeder might be a good choice.
Regular sandstone would probably not hold up well. A quartzitic sandstone or quartzite would probably do well.
You might want to consult a stonemason, and perhaps contract out the decking separately.
What type of flagstone do you currently have?
Regular sandstone would probably not hold up well. A quartzitic sandstone or quartzite would probably do well.
You might want to consult a stonemason, and perhaps contract out the decking separately.
What type of flagstone do you currently have?
James makes a good point, SWG systems are not hard to install you could even do it yourself after the pool is built. The issue I have is I'm not sure I would want to do business with a company that refuses to do things my way even though I am paying them tens of thousands of dollars. That shows a pretty severe lack of regard for their customer in my opinion. It's one thing to advise against it but it's an entirely different thing to refuse to do what your customer is asking you to do and just expect them to fall in line. Just my two cents.
JamesW said:
Wow, TRAVERTINE won't hold up with a SWG system? ugh ... why is this so difficult? We were getting ready to pull the trigger and get TRAVERTINE for our Coping and convert to SWG in 2013. Now I'm back in Analysis Paralysis ... The Quartzite samples that we got were easliy scratched and marred - a very soft stone like Sandstone to me... Maybe we're back to Porcelean? lol ...
After two years our travertine coping is holding up very well here in Houston. I sealed it with a good sealant and if we go a while without rain I will hose down the coping with fresh water every couple of weeks. But I have some friends here who had horrible experiences with flagstone in a salt pool.
[edit] By the way, our travertine is very hard and sort of shiny and slick. You can tell by the touch that it's not very porous and soft. Flagstone, on the other hand, is very soft and porous by comparison.
[edit] By the way, our travertine is very hard and sort of shiny and slick. You can tell by the touch that it's not very porous and soft. Flagstone, on the other hand, is very soft and porous by comparison.